Out on a Limb: Anthracite Heritage events promise to be informative

For a coal region genealogist, one of the most exciting times of the year is Anthracite Mining Heritage Month – the annual exploration of the mining industry that employed tens of thousands, built communities and produced some of our greatest tragedies.

This year’s month-long observances include talks by experts on numerous facets of anthracite mining history, tours of mining sites and examinations of mining culture that explore the times through art and music. Of course, attention will be paid to the tragedies that took so many lives.

Presentations, by the way, are scheduled for locations all over the old coal regions, with many organizations and scores of experts participating. Nearly all are free.

While all promise to be informative, some appear closely aligned with genealogical research.

One program, scheduled for 6:30 pm. Jan. 7 at the Earth Conservancy headquarters, 101 S. Main St., Ashley, includes “Curating the Glen Alden Coal Co. Records.” Glen Alden, famed for its “Blue Coal” product, was a major supplier of anthracite in the mid-Atlantic area and was a huge employer in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Dr. Robert Wolensky, emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin, has provided a list of the month’s events, far too many to list here. A complete list ran in the Times Leader for Dec. 29. Keep checking the Anthracite Heritage Foundation website, ahfdn.org, which will soon offer the complete list of this year’s events. WVIA public radio and TV will offer presentations on its website wvia.org and will preview upcoming events on its Arts Scene programs.

Archives dispute: Genealogists recently welcomed the Pennsylvania Archives move into its new, modern home, but not everyone is happy about the system for accessing records. A man from out of state has filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, parent of the archives, over his having to pay a fee to access material online.

Archives material, of course, is free to Pennsylvania residents who create an online profile for distance research and to everyone who shows up in person to do research. If you live in another state, though, you have to pay a subscription fee to Ancestry for your remote viewing of much of the material in the archives. Ancestry was designated in 2008 to digitize millions of records for the archives.

According to “Spotlight PA,” New York-based professional genealogist Alec Ferretti claims the state is the proper custodian of the records and should be making them free to all. The Historical and Museum Commission, though, says it must honor its contract with Ancestry.

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court sent the case back to the state Office of Open Records. No decision has been announced online as of this writing.

Ferretti is identified as a director of Reclaim the Records, a nonprofit group that works to make historical public records more readily available.

Passwords: Checking on your new-found cousins supplied by Ancestry.com takes a bit more effort these days. Prompted apparently by data break-ins at other sites, Ancestry.com now demands a password sign-in. “We’ve added an extra layer of security to AncestryDNA,” the company says in a recent round of notifications.

In fact, the whole DNA testing business continues to evolve. Not only is DNA testing becoming more precise and specialized, but nearly every week brings news of changes in the way the testing companies operate and deal with the public. A good deal of that change is in the direction of greater security for people who send in their kits and then receive their results.

Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy writer. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.